Content Area(s): Life Science, Earth Science Topic: Relationship between weather and migraine headaches Short description: Recent research indicates that weather may cause the onset of headaches in half of all migraine sufferers. Air temperature, pressure, and even winds have all been linked to migraines.
Claim: Weather might be a major trigger of the onset of migraine headaches.
Keywords: migraine headache, weather Difficulty of Concept: Easy
MS-ETS1 Engineering Design
MS-ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/Literacy
RST.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations descriptions.
RST.6-8.8 Distinguish among facts and reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text.
WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
WHST.6-8.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection and research.
SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions(one-on-one, in groups, teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Topic of Game Introduction Video: Authority Description/Application of Game Introduction Video:
This brief movie is used to introduce the concept of authority before playing the scenario about the relationship between headaches and weather in the Reason Racer game. A good authority is generally thought to be a person or source that is trusted based on knowledge, experience or position. Authority is component of scientific argumentation used during the reasoning phase. It requires students to determine if the person cited in support of a claim is from a respected university, well known in their field or published within the scientific community when making a decision about a claim. Students could discuss claims made in advertising and decided if the authority used is strong or weak and why. Link to Game Introduction Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJwpsWBY66E
Full Text of Article:
Recent studies show that as much as 50% of migraines may be weather-related, which means, unfortunately they cannot be managed as well as those brought on by diet, dehydration and fatigue. Yet there seems to be a wide margin of error in the way people perceive their triggers. One 2004 study in the journal Headache found that 62.3% of people with migraines thought their episodes were weather-sensitive, but an analysis of headache calendars and weather data suggested that only about 50.6% of the study participants actually had migraines that seemed to be clearly associated with weather patterns.
The same study also demonstrated that of those participants whose migraine journals revealed weather triggers, nearly 34% were sensitive to absolute temperature and humidity, about 14% were sensitive to changing weather patterns, and nearly 13% were sensitive to barometric pressure.
A Canadian study explored the response of individuals susceptible to migraines during periods of time in which the so-called "Chinook winds" were blowing. This study showed that these warm air winds, which blow into the province of Alberta from the West, increase the frequency of migraines in a subset of people. The study was unable to determine what specific factors actually influenced the onset of headache, because Chinook winds involve a number of weather characteristics.
A study of more than 7,000 patients, led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, provides some of the first large-scale data on how environmental conditions influence headache pain. The findings demonstrate that higher temperatures, and to a lesser degree, lower barometric pressure, contribute to severe headaches. The study showed a 7.5 percent higher risk of severe headache for each temperature increase of 5 degrees Celsius (approximately 9 degrees Fahrenheit). To a lesser degree, lower barometric pressure 48 to 72 hours prior to patients' emergency room visits also appeared to trigger headache.
"This adds weight and evidence to the idea that environmental triggers are important -- not just clinical folklore," says Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health and internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Mukamal says he and his team designed their study, published in the current issue of the journal Neurology, to put that folklore to the test and also "to determine whether air pollutants trigger headaches, much as they have been found to trigger stroke."
Ruckman, Ivy. Night of the Twisters. 1986. 160p. HarperTrophy, paper, $5.99 (0-06-440176-6). Gr. 4–6. Twelve-year-old Dan Hatch experiences firsthand the tornadoes that hit Grand Island, Nebraska, on June 4, 1980. Although Dan and his family are fictional, the howling, shrieking tornado and the damage it caused were very real.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Author: Judi Barrett Illustrator: Ron Barrett Ages: 9-12 Publisher: Aladdin, 1982 Science Concepts: Weather; Grab your galoshes! The fantastic weather report featured in this imaginative story uses weather terms and phrasing that "sound" real. Adults will appreciate the subtle and sophisticated humor hidden throughout the illustrations.
Title: Weather Is One Big Headache
Content Area(s): Life Science, Earth ScienceTopic: Relationship between weather and migraine headaches
Short description: Recent research indicates that weather may cause the onset of headaches in half of all migraine sufferers. Air temperature, pressure, and even winds have all been linked to migraines.
Claim: Weather might be a major trigger of the onset of migraine headaches.
Keywords: migraine headache, weather
Difficulty of Concept: Easy
Reading Level (Pit Stop 8 Article):
Flesch Reading Ease: 27.7Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 16.7
Lexile: 1610
Next Generation Science Standards:
MS-ETS1 Engineering DesignMS-ETS1-1. Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions.
Common Core State Standards Connections:
ELA/LiteracyRST.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations descriptions.
RST.6-8.8 Distinguish among facts and reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text.
WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
WHST.6-8.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational text to support analysis, reflection and research.
SL.8.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions(one-on-one, in groups, teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Vocabulary Words: dehydration, fatigue, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure
Topic of Game Introduction Video: Authority
Description/Application of Game Introduction Video:
This brief movie is used to introduce the concept of authority before playing the scenario about the relationship between headaches and weather in the Reason Racer game. A good authority is generally thought to be a person or source that is trusted based on knowledge, experience or position. Authority is component of scientific argumentation used during the reasoning phase. It requires students to determine if the person cited in support of a claim is from a respected university, well known in their field or published within the scientific community when making a decision about a claim. Students could discuss claims made in advertising and decided if the authority used is strong or weak and why.
Link to Game Introduction Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJwpsWBY66E
Full Text of Article:
Recent studies show that as much as 50% of migraines may be weather-related, which means, unfortunately they cannot be managed as well as those brought on by diet, dehydration and fatigue. Yet there seems to be a wide margin of error in the way people perceive their triggers. One 2004 study in the journal Headache found that 62.3% of people with migraines thought their episodes were weather-sensitive, but an analysis of headache calendars and weather data suggested that only about 50.6% of the study participants actually had migraines that seemed to be clearly associated with weather patterns.The same study also demonstrated that of those participants whose migraine journals revealed weather triggers, nearly 34% were sensitive to absolute temperature and humidity, about 14% were sensitive to changing weather patterns, and nearly 13% were sensitive to barometric pressure.
A Canadian study explored the response of individuals susceptible to migraines during periods of time in which the so-called "Chinook winds" were blowing. This study showed that these warm air winds, which blow into the province of Alberta from the West, increase the frequency of migraines in a subset of people. The study was unable to determine what specific factors actually influenced the onset of headache, because Chinook winds involve a number of weather characteristics.
A study of more than 7,000 patients, led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, provides some of the first large-scale data on how environmental conditions influence headache pain. The findings demonstrate that higher temperatures, and to a lesser degree, lower barometric pressure, contribute to severe headaches. The study showed a 7.5 percent higher risk of severe headache for each temperature increase of 5 degrees Celsius (approximately 9 degrees Fahrenheit). To a lesser degree, lower barometric pressure 48 to 72 hours prior to patients' emergency room visits also appeared to trigger headache.
"This adds weight and evidence to the idea that environmental triggers are important -- not just clinical folklore," says Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health and internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Mukamal says he and his team designed their study, published in the current issue of the journal Neurology, to put that folklore to the test and also "to determine whether air pollutants trigger headaches, much as they have been found to trigger stroke."
References/Sources:
Additional Content:
Author: Cindy Wilbur